Media: Alcohol ink on Yupo

ABOUT THE SERIES

My partner, Qayyum Johnson, and I have been honoring the moon cycle since the summer of 2019. Each new moon and full moon Qayyum writes a poem and I create a painting. Sometimes Qayyum writes the poem and I make a painting in response to that. Sometimes the other way around. Sometimes we both create from the inspiration of the moon. 

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The poem that Qayyum wrote in response to this painting is below.

The Syllable Ah Moon

—In praise of pratityasamutpada: interdependent co-arising

Full Moon  August 30, 2023

A circle, a turtle

A sea, a moon

A field of fire

A friend demented

Here goes there

Find a singular

Name an unconnected

Identify unchanging

Sit in that shape

Your borrowed mind

Hallucination, mirage

Rainbow hovering dream

In a cave, look out

Summer petals browned

Wind from the east

Whitecaps, a far point

A square, a spiral

A place, awareness

Awake, alive

For now